Spartan Gold: Balaclava train station and more

pg 282

..they'd followed the Ukrainian to the Balaclava train station

Balaklava  is a former city on the Crimean peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol which carries a special administrative status in Ukraine. It was a city in its own right until 1957 when it was formally incorporated into the municipal borders of Sevastopol by the Soviet government. It also is an administrative center of Bakalava Raion that used be part of the Crimean Oblast before it was transferred under the Sevastopol Municipality.

Back at their hotel in Yevpatoria

 Yevpatoria or Eupatoria (Ukrainian: Євпато́рія, Yevpatoriya, Russian: Евпато́рия, Yevpatoriya, Crimean Tatar: Kezlev, Greek: Ευπατορία, Κερκινίτις - Eupatoria, Kerkinitis, Turkish: Gözleve, Armenian: Եվպատորիա - Yevpatoria) is a city in Crimea, Ukraine.

"Damn the torpedoes," Sam said and throttled up.

The Battle of Mobile Bay of August 5, 1864, was an engagement of the American Civil War in which a Federal fleet commanded by Rear Adm. David G. Farragut, assisted by a contingent of soldiers, attacked a smaller Confederate fleet led by Adm. Franklin Buchanan and three forts that guarded the entrance to Mobile Bay.

The battle was marked by Farragut's seemingly rash but successful run through a minefield that had just claimed one of his ironclad monitors, enabling his fleet to get beyond the range of the shore-based guns.

(At this time, mines were called torpedoes, and it was these mines that Farragut meant when he said, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.")

This was followed by a reduction of the Confederate fleet to a single vessel, ironclad CSS Tennessee. Tennessee did not then retire, but engaged the entire Northern fleet.

The armor on Tennessee gave her an advantage that enabled her to inflict more injury than she received, but she could not overcome the imbalance in numbers.

She was eventually reduced to a motionless hulk, unable either to move or to reply to the guns of the Union fleet. Her captain then surrendered, ending the battle. With no Navy to support them, the three forts within days also surrendered. Complete control of the lower Mobile Bay thus passed to the Union forces.

Mobile had been the last important port on the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River remaining in Confederate possession, so its closure was the final step in completing the blockade in that region.
This Union victory, together with the capture of Atlanta, was extensively covered by Union newspapers and was a significant boost for Abraham Lincoln's bid for re-election three months after the battle.